Managing sleep during passage is an important matter because there always needs to be someone on watch 24-7, and the crew needs to be rested in order to stay alert during watch.

This is our shift schedule for the crossing. Daytime watches are more loose and flexible as there's always someone on the flybridge, but we stick to the night time watch strictly.

9-11pm Arabella

11-2am Delphine 

2-5am Big Alex

5-8am Grant

8-9am Apple and Azania (Delphine) 

9-10am Little Alex (Delphine) 

10-12pm Arabella

11-1pm Big Alex

1-3pm Delphine and Azania

3-4pm Apple 

4-5pm Arabella

5-6pm Little Alex

6-9pm Big Alex/ Grant 

Rather than having a long stretch up of 7-8 hours of sleep in the night, we sleep for 3-4 hours max. Then during the day, we would have at least one nap. For me after dinner, I would put Azania to sleep in my cabin and fall asleep with her until my watch at 11. All in all, I would get about 7 hours of total sleep which isn’t bad.

Grant’s sleep is a lot more erratic. He doesn’t sleep in the cabin as he needs to be close to the helm station. Either he sleeps on the flybridge or down at the cockpit. When the weather is bad, he would barely get any sleep and just crashes for an hour or so whenever there’s an opportunity. When the weather is good, he can get a bit more sleep and recuperate from exhaustion and lack of sleep.